Mortician&#39;s instrument



March 11, 1941.

C. H. WHITNEY MORTICIAN'S INSTRUMENT Snvcntor Filed Sept. 16, 1939 dal'l H. mumm M mum Patented Mar. 11, 1941 STATES PATENT 1 Claim.

This invention relates to the art of embalming the human body, and specifically has reference to an instrument found to be of great advantage by the mortician while draining blood from the body and injecting embalming fluid.

It will be understood that for these purposes, an incision (axial, femural, carotid or other incision) is first made in the body, the length and depth of the incision depending upon physical development. Also, after the incision is made, the artery and vein and. sheath in which they are seated must be carefully treated and opened while applying parts thereto to cause drainage and the injection of the embalming liquid.

Since the operator should have free access to deep seated veins and arteries while performing his work, and since the walls of the incision will normally assume a closed condition, means should be provided for spreading and maintaining said Walls to spaced relation so that the operator may have the use of both hands for his work, and may have access to deep seated veins and arteries.

The object of the invention, broadly, is to provide an instrument consisting of a pair of resilient, swingable arms, each having a pair of spaced spreader-arms provided with teeth, the resiliently mounted arms being adapted to be moved into engagement with each other to permit insertion of the spreader-arms into the incision so that the teeth may engage the walls of said incision or may engage the skin for spreading the walls apart and thereby provide an ample cavity or space for operation.

Since the instrument consists of a single wire strip bent to provide a single spring and other parts mentioned, it may be conveniently manufactured, and may be kept in sanitary condition. On account of the location of the spring the arms may be readily swung to closed position for their movement into the cavity or incision, and the operation is automatic for spreading the walls to spaced relation, and on account of the formation of parts the instrument provides ample space between the opposed toothed arms for a mortician to carry on operations.

The invention consists of the new and useful construction, combination and arrangement of parts as described herein and claimed, and as illustrated in the accompanying drawing, it being understood that changes may be made in size, form and proportions, said changes being within the scope of the invention as claimed.

In the drawing, Fig. 1 is a plan view of the morticians instrument shown in normal, expanded position.

Fig. 2 is a plan view showing position of parts when the resilient arms of the instrument have been manually pressedtoward each other into relative engagement, and Fig. 3 is a side View of the instrument.

Referring now to the drawing for a more par- 5 ticular description, the morticians instrument 4 consists of a Wire strip or metallic resilient strand bent midway between its ends to provide a coiled spring 5 and pair of horizontal, resilient leaderarms 6 normally projecting outwardly-divergent 10 from the spring, and providing for each arm 6 a downwardly projecting spreader-arm l; and by electric welding or other suitable means each arm I is provided with a spacing-arm 8. The terminal of each arm l and 8 is provided with an outwardly projecting tooth or spur 9.

As shown and described, the leadenarms 6, by action of the spring 5 will normally be disposed in outwardly-divergent position, and as shown in Fig. 2 these arms 6 may be grasped by the hand of the operator and moved to closed position. In operation, after the incision has been made as above described, the arms 6 are moved to closed position so that the arms '1 and 8 may enter the incision, and thereafter the operator may gradually release his grip to permit the arms 6 to move in opposed directions, the teeth 9 of arms 'I and 8 entering the Walls of the incision and spreading the walls apart to permit the operator to perform his work. Since the action of the instrument is automatic in maintaining the incision in open position, both hands of the operator may be used in the detail work required for embalming, and since the teeth will engage in the opposed walls of the incision (until manually released), the instrument will be dependable in use.

It will be noted that the arms I are inclined forwardly and arms 8 are inclined rearwardly relative to the rectilinear arms 6, the advantage being that this arrangement permits the teeth 9 to engage spaced portions of the walls of an incision for stabilizing and supporting said walls in open position.

I claim as my invention- In a morticians instrument, a resilient strand bent midway between its ends and providing a pair of opposed, normally divergent handle-members and bent downwardly at approximately right-angles from the handle-members to provide a pair of spreader-arms, and a pair of spaoer-arms integral with the spreader-arms, each spacer-arm being disposed adjacent a spreaderarm in the vertical plane below a handle-member, each spreadenarm and each spacer-arm being provided with a terminal projection.

CARL I-I. WHITNEY. 

